County Lines: The Rural-Urban Divide

06/06/23 • 14 min

County Lines is WYSO's series focusing on small towns and rural communities in the greater Dayton area. Funded by a grant from Ohio Humanities, Community Voices producer Renee Wilde travels down the highways and back roads to tell stories of country life that go beyond the stereotypes. This week, hear three short stories from County Lines about Ohio’s rural-urban divide and the spaces in between. Listen to more stories from the series at wyso.org/county-lines.

Act 1: Although the term Urban Sprawl was coined in the 1930’s, by the ‘70’s, it was a hot topic, as increasingly more rural areas, and farmland, were divided up and paved over into strip malls and subdivisions. This spreading ring around our cities where urban sprawl is happening is officially known as the Rural-Urban Fringe. Today on County Lines, producer Renee Wilde takes us there.

Act 2: Looking out over the rolling farm fields from the front porch of his 94 acre farm in Gambier, located in Knox county, former Kenyon College professor and former Director of the Rural Life Center, Howard Sacks reflects on what the definition of rural character is, and what it means to him.

Act 3: Steven Conn, the W.E. Smith Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is a regular contributor to the Dayton Daily News and the Huffington Post and a frequent lecturer in the US and around the world on a variety of topics. He’s also the editor of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective. His most recent book is Americans Against the City: Anti-Urbanism in the 20th Century. Today, he shares his thoughts about attitudes and public policy toward immigrants in southwest Ohio.

And, later this year, join WYSO and Ohio Humanities again for the forthcoming series The Ohio Country. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Previous Episode

More Human with Rebecca Brown Asmo

Inspired by Socrates’s famous dictum that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” More Human, the official podcast of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center at Cuyahoga Community College, features conversations with scholars and students in the humanities. Each episode explores how engaging with literature, philosophy, history, and art enables us to live deeper, fuller, more authentically human lives.

On this episode of More Human, Dean Matt Jordan sits down with Ohio Humanities Executive Director Rebecca Brown Asmo to discuss the organization’s work to advance the humanities across the state, as well as the relevance of the humanities to career pathways and their significance for anyone who desires to live a life of consequence. She also shares Saeed Jones's poem "If You Had an Off Button, I’d Name You 'Off,'” from his anthology “Alive at the End of the World.”

And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Next Episode

Page Count Live: Turning Points in a Writing Career

Page Count, an interview-format podcast presented by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library, celebrates authors, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, publishing professionals, and literary advocates in and from the state of Ohio. Guests range from internationally recognized and bestselling authors to professionals working on a grassroots level to improve access to books and literacy resources.

This episode was recorded before a live audience at the 2023 Ohioana Book Festival, presented in part by Ohio Humanities, at the Columbus Metropolitan Library on April 22, 2023. A panel of five authors discuss turning points in their writing careers—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the existentially fraught. This conversation covers everything from rejection to reader reactions, imposter syndrome, awards, inspiration, validation, and more.

Featured authors include:

Mindy McGinnis, author of the YA mystery A Long Stretch of Bad Days
Ric Sheffield, author of the memoir We Got By: A Black Family’s Journey in the Heartland
Judith Turner-Yamamoto, author of the novel Loving the Dead and Gone
Andrea Wang, author of the picture books Watercress and Luli and the Language of Tea
Felicia Zamora, author of the poetry collection I Always Carry My Bones

For more information, visit the Ohioana Book Festival website.

And, later this year, join WYSO and Ohio Humanities for the forthcoming series The Ohio Country. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.